“Well what a weekend we had at Santa Pod's National Finals!!! It started Friday when Tony had to be taken to the hospital with quite a nasty cut to his finger... the waiting room at Bedford A&E is another story...

Back at the track, we did everything possible to qualify well, but it wasn’t to be... only one driver managed to run a six in qualifying, that driver being Roger Moore. We ended up 4th with a 7.19 at 205 mph.
 

Eliminations on Sunday saw us against Andy Wright in round one, what we didn’t expect was Andy hitting the wall during the burnout.... which gave us an automatic win.

Round two was to be the the race of the weekend. We were paired against Roger Moore who had to beat us and then Graham Ellis in the final (assuming he won his semi final) to be the MSA Pro Mod Champ 2011. We pulled a good light and kept in front of Roger all the way to run a 6.96 at only 175mph to Rogers 6.99!!!

Roger was gutted, as you would expect but he had other things that nearly prevented his weekend even starting... his race rig was destroyed in a motorway pile-up!!!!! Too familiar for my liking. Roger and his crew were lucky to get away without injury and the car was good too. Santa Pod did a great job getting him to the track from the recovery yard.

The final was between Graham and ourselves. We did our very best but went up in a cloud of burnt transmission fluid from our BrunoDrive transmission, although Graham had his own issues and only managed a 7.5 to win... Graham won the meeting and the championship, well done!

“The best event of the year, The European Finals! I always look forward to this one, its a great atmosphere.

We started our time at the Pod with a mix up with the pitting space... we ended up in the Bike Pits, let me tell you those boys can party! We started our qualifying with a struggle, I couldn’t select reverse after the burnout, very strange as I always check gear selection during the warm up in the pits.
 
So we pulled out the Lenco and had a look at the reverser , and of course it needed replacing. We didn’t have a spare so had to ask around. Massive THANK YOU to fellow Pro Mod racer Andy Robinson who loaned us a spare.
 
By the time we had sorted it out we missed the second qualifier, so that was Friday finished.

Saturday saw us hitting the 3rd qualifier with too much power, almost crossing the centre line due to tyre shake, having to pedal it more than once, and ran a 7.5 at 161mph... I doubt that was going to get us in to the show!
 

The last session of qualifying saw some desperate concentration on our behalf, all the team were feeling it... we KNOW we should qualify here... but again I had gear selection problems, and had to shut off..... therefore we didn’t qualify!!
 
The bump spot was 6.99, we have run an easy 6.58 before and that was the hard thing for us, we should have been able to do it.
 
One things for sure in Pro Modified racing, get used to the hard knocks, this is tough sometimes.

We came home on Sunday afternoon, and already we are looking forward to the National Finals.  The parts we needed were ordered on the Monday evening from Lenco, and we had them by Wednesday lunchtime... everything is now fitted and ready!
 
Big thanks to my crew, Dennis, Tony, Adam and Joe my youngest son. My wife Belinda also deserves a big thanks for taking care of us all.
 
Lets see what we can do before the season ends...”

Wayne

"We had a fantastic weekend at The Summer Nationals at Santa Pod.
Saturday saw us qualify with a 6.67 at 211 mph!!! This became our new personal best and, would you believe it, we were Number One qualifier!!!

Sunday saw us against the Plymouth Barracuda of Graham Ellis in round one. Graham had been struggling to get the car down the track on Saturday and it was unusual for him to be the last qualifier. We had almost identical reaction times, Graham then pulled a 0.99 sixty foot to our 1.03... the numbers were in my favour, and then Graham’s, and then mine, and then back to Graham... all the way up the track! I ran a NPB of 6.58 at 214mph but Graham pulled out a great 6.44 at 206mph!

Some great highs over the weekend and a great door handle to door handle race against Graham, who went on to win the event.... well done! We came away with a big NPB in both ET and Speed and there's still lots more to come... plus, no damage at all!

Big thanks to Adam and Tony, Kev Slyfield and everyone who stopped by to wish us good luck, Dennis my hard working crew chief.... we were discussing 'improvements' on the way home, cheers pal... Belinda, who needs her own medal for her continued support, and Joe my youngest son, again, so supportive.

Also another massive thanks to our sponsors, Lucas Oil, Originals Hot Rod Supply Co. and AllyFab, cheers guys!"

Wayne

We have now had two race outings with the HEMI, the first event being the Easter Thunderball. I think its fair to say we had a few little issues to deal with but, overall, it was a very encouraging performance. 7.21 and 200mph with decent 60ft times but not exactly what we were looking for. The biggest issue was not having the shift light working, so shifting gear was a bit of guess work...

 

Next up was The Main Event, the first round of the FIA European Champioship. There were 25 entrants in Pro Modified, all trying to qualify for a 16 car field. Our mission was to qualify against some of the quickest cars in Europe and, of course, some of the most experienced Pro-Mod drivers.

We achieved our first full pass with the HEMI, running 6.71 at 210mph, which gave us the number ten spot!! 

We were all very happy but our attention quickly turned to the next challenge, which was for us to get through round one... one step at a time.  This was to be against Urban Johansson, one of the quickest cars in the class, previously having run 6 zeros!!!

We had as much chance as anyone else, as we were still very safe with our tune on the new motor.

Come race day, we got in to the pairing lanes all set to go and then... RAIN!!! Nothing happened at all, the weather never eased and eliminations were sadly called off.

We came home with everything in one piece, recorded some good data and a fair performance. LUCAS OIL have proved to be a great support with a fantastic product, the between rounds maintenance shows that LUCAS is doing a good job for us, very happy.

We have also attended a couple of local car events, trying to get some more publicity for our sponsors and supporters and a way of showing our appreciation back to everyone involved.

Lucky Devil Drag Racing are very proud to announce that Lucas Oil will be sponsoring us throughout the 2011 season!

As well as being a leading supplier of high performance lubricants for well over 20 years, Lucas Oil have been a strong supporter of drag racing and motorsport in general, so it is a priviledge to have them join us for 2011.

Be sure to visit their website at www.lucasoil.co.uk to see what great products they can offer you, or give them a call on 01248 723 666.

 

Big thanks must go to Les and Steve at Lucas Oil UK for getting onboard with Lucky Devil Drag Racing and providing us with a top class oil for our brand new HEMI motor! More updates to come soon...

If you would like to join them and promote your company with the Lucky Devil Drag Racing team, please contact us via waynenicholson@btinternet.com.

Lucky Devil Drag Racing are happy to once again have some great sponsors rejoining us for 2011. Big thanks to AllyFab and Originals Hot Rod Rod Supply Co. for their continued support!

If you would like to join them and promote your company with the Lucky Devil Drag Racing team, please contact us via waynenicholson@btinternet.com.

In the meantime, the HEMI is almost complete... look out for future updates!